Chapter 28 - Lin Chen Suggestion
" Aye that Fang Xiaolin is really hard working " sighed mother Lin as she walked back inside with Lin Yan 's help " she is the only woman in her house but she manages it really well , its just a pity that nobody looks at her good traits and only focus on the bad one "
Mother Lin had a good impression of Fang Xiaolin even though she was a shared wife of the Feng brothers . Mother Lin had seen Fang Xiaolin working in the fields as well as doing laundry by the river , in the past when mother Lin used to accompany Lin Yu in washing clothes , she sometimes chatted with Fang Xiaolin , the lively Fang Xiaolin was a good companion to mother Lin but then some of the village women started bad mouthing Fang Xiaolin because she married all three Feng brothers and threw contemptuous remarks everytime Fang Xiaolin came to do her laundry . After some time Fang Xiaolin who had a nice temper and rarely fought with anyone , stopped coming to the river for washing her family's clothes it was rumoured that she started washing her clothes at night when the rive shore became much less crowded .
" I know mother " said Su Wan as she sat down on the dining table and started serving the food , she knew that Mother Lin was trying to put a good word for Fang Xiaolin in front of her . But Su Wan didn't need mother Lin to tell her how good Fang Xiaolin was because Su Wan already wanted to befriend Fang Xiaolin . After all both of them were shared wife , what was there for her to judge Fang Xiaolin ? As long as the person was nice towards her , she will be nice to them but if someone turned nasty towards her - hehe , she would make sure that the person drowned in her spit until they no longer dared to even stand in front of her .
Su Wan didn't care about how the village women will condemn her , as long as they didn't bother her she won't bother with them . But that didn't mean that she wouldn't repay their one comment with two and a slap with two slaps .
She wasn't an old Buddha who had endless patience and kindness , if someone tried to disgust her than they better pray to their Gods nicely because she wouldn't hold herself back and if the situation called for it .
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" Ah , I'm in heaven " with animated tears flowing down his cheeks like river nile ( its all Su Wan 's imagination - like the anime version where a character cries with tears running like broken tap ) Lin Chen sniffled heaping praises upon praises as he ate the Salisbury fish steak and mushroom curry with rice " Its so delicious , its really- really very delicious " Lin Chen didn't go to school thus he didn't know much about adjectives , thus he used whatever words he knew and piled them all to praise Su Wan .
" Thank you " lips twitching Su Wan accepted his praise .
Then she glanced around the table and saw her family eating with delight but compared to Lin Chen who was overreacting , the others acted in a rather dignified manner ( well at least they didn't have snot running down their nose )
" mhmm" with her hand in front of her lips , mother Lin nodded as she ate her meal with flourish . Never before she ate something so delicious , her natal family were poor and the most expensive thing that they could afford was meat buns later on she married in the Lin family , where she didn't even get a mouthful of rice much less something so tasty . The first time mother Lin had a meat bun , she thought it was the most delicious thing in the world but now that she ate Su Wan's Salisbury fish steak , she realised that her thinking wasn't any better than a frog stuck in a well ! Compared to those oily and bland meat buns this Salisbury fish steak was so delicious " Ah Chen is right , this is really delicious . I never thought fish can be cooked like this usually we only fried or boiled it ."
" Its all because Ah Yan learned it well " even though she was the one who came with the idea of cooking the fish like Salisbury steak , she didn't want to claim all the praise for it . When all was said and done all Lin Yan was the one who cooked it to so well that he nearly achieved perfection .
" brother , if you can cook so well , gulp why didn't you cook like * gulp * this * gulp * before " chewing constantly Lin Chen asked , Su Wan was surprised that he was able to make such comprehensible words with how packed his mouth was with fish and rice .
" Don't speak with your mouth full " snapped Lin Yan looking at his little brother with disgust , Lin Chen who was scolded smiled sheepishly but still continued to stare at Lin Yan who thinned his lips and finally explained " We didn't use to have much condiments in the past , and Grandma Lin only let us have coarse grain even coarse rice was hard to come by what do you expect from me ? Even God cannot cook a delicacy without proper spices and ingredients . And Wan Wan has different techniques that she uses in her cooking for example she doesn't add the coarse salt just as it is instead she grinded it into fine powder like white flour - I didn't know that we can do it like that , so the food taste became uneven sometimes too salty or too bland . Now that we have condiments and proper techniques the food naturally tastes better "
" Its good that it tastes so delicious " said Lin Rui putting down his bowl as scooped some more Salisbury fish steak and rice in it " If we introduce something that tastes so good and was never seen before in the restaurant , the possibility of it making a good earning will be really high - speaking of introducing it in the restaurant for how much do you want to sell it Wan Wan ?"
" Erm .." Su Wan blinked and swallowed her rice , she really didn't have much understanding about the economic condition of this era so she really had no idea about what the people of this era thought as 'suitable price ' " why don't you guys tell me , I really don't know much about how much we should sell it for ?
" I know , I know " said Lin Chen raising his hand in the air as he placed his bowl back on the table " If I'm not wrong that 'eat delicious ' restaurant of yours is near the docks right ?"
Su Wan thought for a bit , finally extracting that particular information from the previous owner's memory and nodded .
" Well since our family's restaurant is near the docks why don't we set the price around five wen ?" suggested Lin Chen " Its like this the dockworkers usually earn upto forty to fifty copper coins a day and if their business isn't that good, they can still earn more than thirty coins. The Salisbury fish steak that Wan Wan and Second brother came up with includes meat , mushrooms and rice - while its true that we get fish and mushroom for free and the rice is coarse rice , it still tastes better than those oily buns and noodles they eat everyday . So I think If we sell a bowl filled with rice , fish and mushroom and the price is too low, then we won't be able to make much money. On the other hand, if we set the price too high, then no one will buy it."
" then why don't we do this ? We make an extra bowl of Salisbury fish steak and mushroom and let some people taste a bit from it on the first day ? If we let them taste it before they buy it , won't they be willing to purchase more ? And five wen is not a high price either . After all the meat buns vendors only sell four meat buns for five wen and we will be giving them free taste as well as a full bowl of Our Salisbury fish steak and mushroom - the bowl will have meat , is cheap and tastes really delicious .I'm certain it will sell well "
Su Wan felt like she had seen the light at the end of the tunnel and looked at Lin Chen with gleaming and admiring eyes. She had to admit, Lin Chen really had a flare for business , who would have thought that this guy who only knew how to eat and act like a fool , will come up with such a modern style of selling his business.
Lin Chen felt his pride swell in chest when he saw his wife 's worshipful and admiring gaze. He chuckled at his brothers envious gazes and started on his third bowl of Salisbury fish steak and rice .
Ah , It was really too delicious, his wife was really the best .